The Kick “Your You Know What” Workout That Cost Nothing…

What do you really need to get in a good workout? Now if you work out at the nearest, swankest 24 Fitness; that ought to be an easy question. Likewise, if you own that $1,000 Marcy Smith Cage Gym; again, that ought to be an easy question.

What if you don’t own all that and only have a couple hundred bucks to spend?

But, the video sucks. Well, actually, my digital camera sucks, evidently. Did I tell you this is strictly a less than a shoestring operation?

For some reason the voice on this video is like those old Kung Fu movies where the mouth moves and the words come out 20 seconds later. Just mute the darn thing…

Anyways, this is what the video is all about…

I think a circuit routine is a great tool for getting in a good workout that works you both aerobic and anaerobically. You get a great pump, work your muscles to exhaustion, and also get your heartbeat in the fat burning stage. That’s about all you can ask for.

The routine…

Push-ups

Chair Dips

Chair Rows

Sissy Squats

Handstand Push-ups

Ab Crunches

Reverse Ab Crunches

I picked these 7 exercises because – 1. I like them and 2. It gets the whole body.

All the exercises except the ab movements work the big muscle groups. You hit the chest, shoulders, back, quads – all the secondary groups in this one circuit.

What you need…

You need 2 sturdy back chairs (not plastic chairs or patio chairs). Solid wood, sturdy chairs are best. Any chair that can hold your weight works

You need a broomstick or any solid wood stick about 5 ft. in length. Like the chair, it must be able to support your weight.

How to do it…

1 circuit set is all 7 movements down with no rest between exercises

Your objective is to do 3 to 4 circuit sets

For the first week, keep your reps between 10 and 20, even if you can do more. If you can’t do more, just don’t go to failure.

Starting the second week, do as many reps as you for each exercises. By the second set, you’ll probably do about 3 handstand push-ups. By the 4th set, you’ll be lucky to get into position.

Rest no more than 2 minutes between sets. Don’t cheat and rest longer as you get into your 3rd and 4th set.

Beauty of it all…

This workout will challenge you. No doubt about it.

This workout will cost you nothing. You need not buy anything (assuming you have a couple of sturdy chairs and broomstick).

In 20 or 25 minutes, you get in a great workout that will pump up your muscles and give you an aerobic sweat.

For the video that follows:

Mute and turn off the volume

Don’t laugh – no Brad Pitt am I (in the words of Master Yoda). Hey, just an ordinary, 50 year old guy giving you some ideas and options.

Look at the movements – see if it’ll work for you.

Also, position the chairs and be close enough to a door, so that you can move from exercise to exercise with minimum rest or pause. Into the 3rd set, your greatest temptation will be move slower between exercises. Push yourself.

Couple of additional notes:

During the pushups, you saw me drop to my knees to make the pushups more doable if you’re not strong enough yet. This also works in your final set (be it the 3rd or 4th), where you do as many as you, and then, drop to your knees to crank out a few more before moving to dips.

Also, once you get to where you can do about 40 to 50 pushups on your first set, think about wearing a backpack with some books or heavy things in it to give you some additional resistance. That backpack with books in it will really crank up the intensity for your dips, rows, and squats. Just remember to take it off for your handstand push-ups and ab crunches.

For the dips, don’t worry too much about dropping all the down. Go down as far as you can comfortably go. Don’t force it or you may injury or pull your pec muscle. Or your shoulder muscles as you put yourself in a vulnerable position way down deep. A good reference point to stop is when your upper arms are parallel to ground. Use your instincts and be safe.

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